Salmon farm Closure. Isle Ewe.

[3lbgrayling]

VICTORY | MOWI Scotland admits defeat and announces closure of salmon farm which failed environmental standards for over a decade.

Campaigners and community organisations have welcomed the news that following years of pressure a salmon farm operated by MOWI Scotland in a Marine Protected Area has been forced to close and has relinquished its site lease with the Crown Estate Scotland. The company failed environmental standards continuously since 2006 at its Isle Ewe site.

MOWI bosses had claimed that,

"“The site will be closed conditional to the support from our regulatory system to transfer the biomass to other locations and to sustainably expand our production…."

But this was firmly rebutted by www.issf.org.uk at the time,

Mr Smith said this stance was “ridiculous”.

“It’s a thoroughly empty statement because the idea the law would permit the unilateral transferring of biomass from one farm to another on the basis of the original farm failing its environmental standards is ridiculous,” he added.

He said he believed the “idea that Mowi could take non-compliant biomass and dump it somewhere else is an absolute nonsense.”

“Mowi, the Norwegian salmon farming giant,

 

[esk]

Their take on it. They don't appear to think they've lost at all.

"Mowi Scotland has confirmed that it to close its salmon farm at Loch Ewe after winning permission for a new site off the small island of Scalpay, Skye, which will form part of an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) project."

"“We are pleased to note that the 2020 seabed survey carried out at the site met SEPA’s new and enhanced environmental standards and Mowi will implement a post closure monitoring programme to continue to assess the health of the marine environment.”

"The company has approached Wester Ross Area Salmon Fishery Board to discuss the potential for installation of one (Neptune) tank at Loch Ewe, and will soon approach stakeholders at other locations. Mowi will seek permissions for the deployment of four tanks in Scotland. "

Unbelievable.

 

[Laxdale]

It will be interesting to see what this does to the sea trout stocks in the Maree system.

 

[bobmiddlepoint]

"The company has approached Wester Ross Area Salmon Fishery Board to discuss the potential for installation of one (Neptune) tank at Loch Ewe, and will soon approach stakeholders at other locations. Mowi will seek permissions for the deployment of four tanks in Scotland. "

You would hope that after thirty years of putting up with fish farm filth and lice that the Wester Ross Area SFB would reply with a blunt **** right off!

So does anyone know anything about these Neptune tanks? I found this:

Mowi Scotland plans floating tanks for post-smolts - FishFarmingExpert.com

Mowi Scotland is exploring the potential use of solid-walled floating “Neptune” tanks to grow post-smolts from 120 to 800 grams.

www.fishfarmingexpert.com

Which says they are used to grow the smolts to 1kg after which they are transferred to normal open cages. The Neptune tanks appear to be solid floating tanks but they must have water flow through them. Are the inlets and outlets filtered? What happens to all the fish sh1t that would normally fall through the bottom of an open cage?

It would be great to think that Maree might be worth fishing again from 2022 onwards (or 2021 for those happy with finnock!). Like many I grew up dreaming of fishing Maree but by the time I could travel and afford it the place was finished (for sea trout).



Andy

 

[easker1]

rethink your Time scale, add on 10 years, then think about it, It was going down in the Late 80's the salmon farm went in in 1985, but it was then right in the estuary of the Ewe,remember Nature abhors a vacuum, the Brownies have made head roads since then taking the place of seatrout in the food chain when the Farm went in the returns were already well down and the farm made it difficult to get back, easker1

 

[Laxdale]

rethink your Time scale, add on 10 years, then think about it, It was going down in the Late 80's the salmon farm went in in 1985, but it was then right in the estuary of the Ewe,remember Nature abhors a vacuum, the Brownies have made head roads since then taking the place of seatrout in the food chain when the Farm went in the returns were already well down and the farm made it difficult to get back, easker1

"returns were already well down"
A point lost on many people. The estuary, river and loch were getting badly netted, just the same as many other west coast rivers.
Not that you will ever get any river managers that were working in the 70s and 80s admitting that fact.

 

[easker1]

as the whole of Loch Ewe was an estuary it had Bagnets on it but the Bagnets were out past Isle Ewe,these had been on the water long before the Salmon Farm started, and they were run by the estate but there was a good few illegal nets used on the loch , every now and again the estate used to have a sweep for Illegal nets, in one case the owners stole the nets back, I was living there at the time, happy days, easker1

 

[Laxdale]

I remember reading Rogie`s report in T & S when the decline was in full swing. He said, roughly, that for whatever month it was, nothing over 1.5lbs had been caught, and anything that size caught was net marked. Add in forestry over the spawning grounds and overgrazing, then what hope did Maree have. Then along came aquaculture to kick the system when it as down.

 

[bobmiddlepoint]

"returns were already well down"
A point lost on many people. The estuary, river and loch were getting badly netted, just the same as many other west coast rivers.
Not that you will ever get any river managers that were working in the 70s and 80s admitting that fact.

I'm sure it was but there is no doubt that the salmon farms were the final (very big) nail in the coffin.

 

[easker1]

what River Managers? the River Ewe was managed by the Owner,there was no Bailiff as such, easker1

 

[Laxdale]

what River Managers? the River Ewe was managed by the Owner,there was no Bailiff as such, easker1

Whoever was in charge of the fishery at the time, be it owner, factor, ghillie, keeper of housekeeper. I know of two guys who spent their summer holiday netting the estuary of what had been a renowned salmon, and especially sea trout, river. It only cost them a bottle of whisky.
And there were others getting the same treatment.

 

[easker1]

Never heard that one, so when was that? it is illegal to net an estuary with in a mile of low water springs, it would seem the Ewe salmon fisheries Board didnt' know about that, althought the river Ewe is basically under the control of Inveran it is also a shared system with all the Riparian owners having a say, easker1

 

[sightbob]

Just watched a report on Landward tonight, how can a company(MOWI) who admit
the loss of 120,000 sexually immature salmon in two incidents in West Scotland
this year still be operating here. As far as i know these fish will enter rivers and eat
everything. Has there been many of these fish caught? My apologies if any this is not fact
only what ive read over the years about escapees.

 

[bobmiddlepoint]

Just watched a report on Landward tonight, how can a company(MOWI) who admit
the loss of 120,000 sexually immature salmon in two incidents in West Scotland
this year still be operating here. As far as i know these fish will enter rivers and eat
everything. Has there been many of these fish caught? My apologies if any this is not fact
only what ive read over the years about escapees.

The how they are still operating is easy - money talks.
Escaped farmed salmon have been caught in numbers from rivers all around the South West of Scotland this year after the big escapes.

I've lived beside salmon farming for some years in the past and the general waste, filth, disregard for the regulations and slapdash nature of the whole operation is amazing. No other farming sector based on land would be allowed to get away with it (which is saying something given the lack of teeth in SEPA) and no other farming operation could sustain the huge year on year losses of stock.

Ah well...


Andy